The Missing Woman and Other Stories in Bloomington, MN

Winner of:
Ploughshares
, 2015 John C. Zacharis Award
Stories in
The Missing Woman
circle around women who are either literally missing – a mother in rehab, a daughter never born – or who are missing some metaphorical piece of themselves.
A father tries to convince his uncompromising, anorexic daughter to want to live, a single woman lures men to her bed only to abandon them, and a marriage is shaken by a search party for a woman who’s disappeared. Burns asks questions about balance – safety with adventure, dreams with practicality, grief with joy – and challenges the reader to take a journey, make choices...